Burn
by 3rdTimeIsACharm
Summary: At a post-graduation bonfire, Rose and Scorpius see sparks burst into flame.


Can be read as a companion to Care of Magical Creatures/nestled into the beginning of Chapter 6 (counting from the Prologue), which I guess would bring about an early ending to that story. Alternately, can be read as a stand-alone with the same assumptions as that stage of CMC: Rose and Scorpius are friends who have recovered from a brief dabble in an ill-fated teenage relationship.

Maybe I'll incorporate this into the camping chapter of CMC.

I'm not here to take $$$ away from JKR.

* * *

Two young women gallivant around the grocery store. To any outsider, they're clearly having the time of their lives, picking up random things, showing them to each other, then setting them back down. To anyone listening any closer, their conversation may be a little disturbing: they are considering how each of the items would behave if set on fire. But to those with a sharp ear, these two are discussing how the items would behave in different _colors_ of flame. It doesn't seem to be a chemistry experiment; they make no mention of the different metal compounds that give muggle fireworks their vibrant colors. And to the discerning eavesdropper, the girls are discussing _spells_ that would generate flame of different color, and the different heating properties of these flames.

But after several minutes of tossing random packages of snacks between each other, the girls settle on a variety of snack foods and beverages, and most notably, the ingredients for s'mores: graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows.

Rose Weasley is helping Alice Longbottom go shopping for a small graduation party that Alice is helping to host tonight. The invitation reads:

 _You are cordially invited to a phoenix-themed graduation party. Bring your notes from class, your detention slips, old love poetry, anything flammable that you want to leave behind in flames as we are reborn into our next chapter. Guests are welcome. Light snacks will be provided. Bring your own beverages._

A date and time are listed. The location is the field behind the Scamanders' residence.

* * *

Alice and Rose are having dinner with the Scamanders when the guests start trickling in. Anya Clearwater, from Alice's group of girlfriends, and Albus Potter. Persephone Nott makes a beeline for Lorcan Scamander and kisses him squarely on the mouth, to the general astonishment of the group. Sadie Bai arrives hand in hand with Lyle Wood. Rose wolfs down a couple more bites of dinner before thanking Aunt Luna and Uncle Rolf for the meal and heading out to help Alice set up the space outside. They have three small fire pits surrounding a fourth large one. The plan is to have huge bonfire (made of regular fire) in the large pit once it gets dark, but for starters, they'll mess around with the aforementioned different colors of fire in the smaller pits.

Rose is cold-roasting a marshmallow over her mother's favored blue flame, which is currently consuming Anya's Arithmancy notes one page at a time when she looks up and notices that almost everyone from their year is in attendance. Some are feeding the small colored flames, some are clustered together in mismatched lawn chairs or near the snack table, catching up with each other after not having seen each other for one month. And one has made eye contact with Rose and is slowly making his way over. Scorpius Malfoy. Her heart rate picks up a little, but she forces herself to maintain composure by asking Anya what she has been up to in the time since graduation.

Rose is enthusiastically nodding along to Anya's story of a muggle road race that she ran two weeks ago when Scorpius materializes at her elbow.

"Hi, Rose," Scorpius greets. Then, with a nod, "Clearwater."

"Hi, Scorpius," Rose says at the same time that Anya says, "Malfoy."

"Sorry to interrupt your story, Clearwater, please continue. I just came to say hi."

"It's no worry, Malfoy. I was just finishing up, and, um, actually, I wanted to try out the purple flame on the other side, so I'll excuse myself now." She sidles off with a knowing wink at Rose, who sticks her tongue out like a child in response.

Rose recovers and says to Scorpius, "Have you tried a cold-roasted marshmallow, Scorpius?"

"I… a what?"

"Here," Rose thrusts the marshmallow that she had been roasting at Scorpius. "Hold this. Let me get the graham cracker and chocolate ready and you can try."

Rose stacks the s'more, and pushes it into Scorpius' mouth, a gesture that she finds oddly intimate given their status as friends with a history. The feeling is exacerbated when Scorpius maintains eye contact and his lips brush Rose's fingers. She pulls them, and the bitten s'more, back abruptly, and she looks elsewhere as she also takes a bite of the s'more.

"It's… tasty."

"What! You could be more complimentary than that. I slaved over this marshmallow." She didn't, really, it was a first pass attempt, and Rose loves setting things on fire, so it's not like it will be difficult to make another.

"Truth be told, I've never actually had a s'more of any kind."

"Oh man. Are you ever in for a treat when the sun sets properly and we get the regular fire going. I would say the cold-roasted one is nice, but the ooey-gooey-melty texture of the regular, hot s'more is just not there, and it takes some getting used to. But it doesn't really add much more than a regular uncooked marshmallow." Rose sighs in anticipation, a dreamy look passing over her face.

Scorpius is gazing at her bemusedly, but also seems to be fascinated by her discussion. Rose looks away, uncomfortable. They're friends. But the amount of attention Scorpius is paying her in this moment suggests that they are on the cusp of being more.

So she takes a fortifying breath and jumps in. "If you stick around, Scorpius, I'll make you a hot s'more."

"You're hot," the words slip out of Scorpius' mouth before he has a chance to process.

They stare at each other, Scorpius mortified, Rose's face turning the same color as her hair, not that the latter is noticeable in the lengthening shadows.

She is spared from having to respond by the appearance of Alice.

"Whatchu guise talking about?" she sings, but stops when she sees the two of them simultaneously staring hard at each other and not wanting to look at each other.

"Am… am I interrupting something…?"

Rose shakes her head, grabs Alice's hand, and tows her in the direction of… away. Not Scorpius. She sees Albus and decides that he is her current favorite person and makes a beeline toward him.

"Okay, hang on, Rose, what did I interrupt?"

"He said I was hot!"

"Why are you behaving like this is a bad thing?"

"I just," Rose sputters. "We're friends! He gave no indication of any of this previously!"

"Rose, you two have been dancing around each other for years now."

Rose clamps her mouth shut and refuses to say anything.

Alice sighs. "Come on, sit with me. We can burn notes from History of Magic. No one will have to know how much our vocabularies grew in that class from playing hangman."

They sit in lawn chairs, discussing their summers, their internship plans, a boy Alice met while on holiday in the south of France, who has become her owl pal, and folding their notes into various shapes and charming them to fly into the flames. Dusk falls, and someone lights the big central fire. Alice gets up to use the loo and replenish her drink, and fewer than five seconds after Alice leaves, as Rose is staring into the dancing flames, a body plunks down into the seat next to her. When she looks up, it's Scorpius. Of course it's Scorpius. But he has a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and dragging on the ground and he looks uncommonly _plebeian_ , and when she meets his eyes, he extends one arm and offers some blanket to Rose. When she gladly accepts, because it's gotten chilly without her noticing, he doesn't remove his arm, so now she's sitting stiffly with his arm around her shoulder, and five centimeters between their bodies.

He sighs.

She sighs.

"Rose, come here." He applies a little pressure on her shoulder, and she hesitates only one second before giving in and being tucked into the side of his body. He's warm. She doesn't fail to notice how perfectly they fit together. But they're friends, and he's obviously sharing his blanket platonically, because friends watch out for each other like that… Speaking of friends who watch out for each other, where in the heck did Alice disappear to?

Rose sees Alice sitting. Clear across on the other side of the fire. Rose scowls. Betrayed by her alleged best friend.

Rose feels Scorpius drop a kiss to the top of her head, before his arm slides down, off her shoulders, to wrap around her waist. "Rose," he starts.

She looks up to meet his eyes. Sees that he is nervous as heck. Considering their position, and his nerves, she suspects that she should also be somewhat nervous. But she nods for him to continue.

"Rose, I still fancy you. Never really stopped, if we're being totally honest. I just, I feel terrible after what happened. Being young and clueless is no excuse for my behavior. You gave me a chance to be more in tune with life and social interactions, and I blew it. And I know that you're going off to Romania, and long-distance relationships rarely work out, but I just had to ask you, would you give me another chance?"

Rose didn't know it was possible for her heart to start and stop so many times in such a short amount of time, so her only logical conclusion is that she has died and gone to heaven.

"Scorpius, I," what she really wants to do is be logical and point out all the reasons that this is a terrible thing to try. But it also feels so _right_ in the moment, and they've definitely gotten to know each other better after their first failed attempt and the more she knows about him, the more she likes him and trusts his character. So maybe it is worth another shot.

Lacking the appropriate words for the situation, Rose snakes her arm around his waist, to find his opposite hand tucked into his pocket. She intertwines her fingers with his, meets his eyes and says, "Yes, let's take it one day at a time and see how it goes."

His answering smile is brighter than the bonfire, and they stare happily into each other's eyes for a long moment before someone charms the flames to rise in the shape of a flying phoenix, sending licks of heat and flame harmlessly around the circle.

Rose and Scorpius hold hands under the blanket for the rest of the night, with the exception of the minutes when Rose teaches Scorpius to make proper s'mores. He sets several marshmallows on fire before he gets it right, and his eyes sparkle with delight when he bites into it.

When people run out of Hogwarts memories to burn, the marshmallows run low, and people start nodding off around the fire, people start trickling home. Rose and Scorpius stand facing each other, much like they did at the beginning and end of their one and only date. Rose has her hands wrapped around her elbows, and Scorpius shrugs out of his green plaid fleece-lined flannel and hands it to Rose. She takes it gratefully, then wraps her arms around him in a tight hug.

They part with a, "I'll owl you."


End file.
